40 Years of Roe V Wade & Where Abortion Rights Stand Now - With tracy weitz

such pleasure to welcome to the program dr trace you uh... we eat the director of the advancing new standards in reproductive health program at the bixby center for reproductive health at u_c_ san francisco uh... welcome to the program professor technocratic so i you know the fortieth anniversary of roe v_ wade in many respects i think and then tell me i mean from a legal perspective the uh... i think uh... the re-election of president obama i think is the best thing that could happen for roe v_ wade but on the ground uh... there seems to me do been a a women's right to reproductive health seems as threatened as ever i think that be e uh... election of obama secures at least predictor premkumar forget moment im but the fight for many decades that benefit state-level which and the casey decision in nineteen ninety-two have been allowed to break the early abortion care express there disapproval of abortion both to women and the health care providers to operate in we're we're looking at excuses to thousands and in many respects sort of an unprecedented onslaught on the state level on awam is right to choose you you you wrote recently i think it was in hopping to pose to suppose that states based abortion regulations would be less proud prevalent if the pro-choice movement had behave differently or could have different leadership is naive rather a fight over abortion will continue as long as is an effective tool the conservative economic political establishment tell me what what you meant by that well v at that country heavily been quite conflicted about abortion whether it's moral immoral uh... should be regulated should they not regulated but abortion restriction have really had very little kid to with that fight they are an attempt q galvanize a population of boulder who otherwise would boat um... who food economic interest are more aligned with the party that is pro-choice though a way to keep it that conservative particularly evangelical christian voters aligned with the republican party and aligned with very conservative economic policy that benefit the highly wealthy uh... idbi introduced new legislation at sort of bad on steroid weight that said look we care about your issues work what we are doing and then it keeps people aligned with that conservative um... movement an instance the many respects i mean that's how this became an issue uh... uh... from i mean at least a eight eighty broader political issue from the very beginning community that this was the plant since the made too late seventies abt the reason i want to keep them happy because what to remind that that they've had a long history of political manipulation and he gave me that suddenly in two thousand and pad the american public woke up and said look we disagree with the portion that therefore were to elect politicians and they're going to implement the candidates have been a very strategic move q align abt moral conservative social conservative from particular demographic group i'm with the conservative party who actually doesn't really care about abortion it really care about the economic policy that they were able to get through e cloak and and social conservative it down in order to keep people voting against their own economic self-interest and there's also a i mean there's there's a key of having uh... uh... they've right of women too determinedly determination as to whether or not over their reproductive systems is also sort of based in of the economic liberation of women as well mean you know aside from it being a fig leaf for another agenda aside from the conservatives using uh... abortion as one of these sort of social uh... identify identification issues like in many respects like guns like uh... uh... marriage equality i think there's also some real economic implications for women when it comes to uh... having reproductive rights which also in some ways uh... impact economics that men deal yet that breast too uh... uh... and economic if dem web full member to the household need to work dramatically shifted power arrangement in family in particular error in families that had uh... traditional patriarchal structures who are worried that when women can control both their sexuality and their fertility that that traditional patriarchal family structure threaten though absolutely folk that arken burned about uh... for that mail forty folk aircon charmed about meant economic uh... um... predominate in in their own the marketplace are very concerned about what abortion mean in terms of women corporation i think that argument get last attention in the general population because dean and gary antiquated i think the fact that what you thought and uh... romney within romney inability to articulate that women should make equal pay for equal work that bad is actually in undercurrent of the folks who are putting forward somebody the antiabortion commission but i think it will rarely articulated in that way out because women in the workforce had become though ubiquitous and he really is not an issue that we are fighting about publicly it may be an issue that we're fighting at we will portion regulation but he did not actually what date bed about the uh... everything for these restrictions yes and i think to a certain i said i think that that to me is incredibly fascinating dynamic because i think it permeates all of this and i think you know obviously um... it triggers you know sort of heehee conservative mindset uh... there is that in some ways uh... you know a reproductive rights is threatening the traditional family uh... uh... traditional family values which in their mind is that uh... it is extremely uh... patriarchal it also has implications it because it creates a certain pressure on wages uh... four men that is sort of articulated through this and i think he uh... i think this is so bala dot in it because i think a lot of the earth the misogyny we see that is sort of whirlwind through uh... uh... you know we see state legislatures were for earth to uh... women hill has compatible um... and uh... yeah i guess dropping the h instead of channels of but uh... so much of it is downed up in that that it is that this is so much of a women's reproductive uh... rights is bound up in sort of larger questions of of of feminism the am and and if the repairman use are much more attention in this election cycle time ball abortion and country option jack that he really is that out this larger issue and not just about the moral that at the defeat it herewith check about the moral that at the defeated it may be kept having a fight about abortion but in fact this legislative that election cycle inkjet that suggest all of us that it's about more than abortion it about abortion it's dot com perception that balance sexuality generally which is about a larger set of social anxiety and i think special anxiety there about the destruction of the family structure but also destruction abt sort of white elite power i think that team backlash that you thought in abortion rights uh... was represented in that backlash against immigration right *** in kind of trip real anger or really hardcore policy in st around both abortion and immigration and they have to do with that sort of crisis of power the traditional white in uh... male dominated patriarchal family and so let me know get your sense of you know i guess it was probably about maybe in two thousand four heard a lot about uh... democrats traditionally considered the well and then i think uh... quite obviously the pro reproductive rights uh... uh... political uh... movement i guess in in this country but we saw at that time there was an attempt to sort of blur those lines a little bit do your sense of where and how it's a lie lined with the democratic party is today relative to just like ten years ago era portion to single back marker which political party you belonged to that while the country have become more nuanced in understanding of all kinds of political issues the abortion issue is gary much uh... party a collegiate pure against abortion you're more likely to be a republican a cure uh... for abortion rights are more likely to be a democrat though there's been a big polarization across the party uh... what that meant for the democratic party is that it's trying to be at big your at big time and a hand read cute kid hard-core support four abortion rights and moved in and i think we thought it with with bill clinton that let make abortion safe legal and rare he's uh... president obama thing with reduced the need for abortion this idea that there were three other a middle ground compromise what we can all agree that we'd get flight to portion but we didn't want to change its legal fateh um what that did the for abortion conversation entirely stigmatize the women who used to portion services pretty much told them big even the party that support their legal right to abortion did not support gary youth of abortion and women became phylum they did not tell their story uh... we forgot that one-in-three women will have an abortion in our lifetime that every year the in number of abortions happen active gary infections and yet all of us can name and number of people in our life competitive carry infection this year but we can't name the women in our life you've had a portion uh... so we drove abortion into a much more statement i placed not just from people who are prone to abortion by people who were in support of legal abortion who fought that this could be the compromise atwood stopped the abortion wars and e-ticket utica that the pendulum has swung back from it because i i i i it seems to me that that this past election um... e it it's it's long back a little bit i mean maybe maybe it was more because maybe this visit this fight was far more on contraception and abortion uh... over the over the past ten months or so over the past year uh... but do you have a sensitive swung back i mean just because the democrats are that there is that i mean uh... you n_b_c_ came out with a poll although i guess uh... uh... just this past week saying that uh... for the first time i think i ever uh... fifty four percent of adults are that abortion should be leader honor the legal either always are most of the time uh... that's the biggest majority and that it's been do you think that that pendulum has swung back at all at least in terms of the democratic party i can't believe it it impact and part because it didn't work out a strategy reaching out trying to find the product baat compromise but we all agreed we dislike abortion we're not gonna talk about it didn't abortion rights opponent i'm pushing for harder legislation pursing more egregious thing about but date you know the idea that uh... pregnant the reports from a reputed property and god that it strategic we did not work though i think that many people are backing away and no you know that but actually talk about what's true which is that lots of women have abortion that this is part of how they control their lives and that we get the country iphone dare legal right to do this but i do think depend fun swinging back i'd also think that young people i'm who get uh... who who are often talked about it not caring about the issue carolina about the economic uh... social stratification access to this right anarchy and that they are really waiting beginning to raise their voices about uh... the unexpected bility let any of the hyde amendment the first compromise the nineteen th benefit compromise the fed the taxpayer dollars could not be used for abortion that the consequences of that for poor women are now being *** by uh... younger generation did much more about social chapter i thought to be more of a personal topics orientation to abortion rights and happy kept much more progressive generally uh... so i think that the pendulum in swimming baths doesn't mean that last point is is is really the most instances is uh... is also incredibly important i think uh... to note because when you see these attacks on access to abortion in the rights it is all always really uh... felt most by poor women and they are also rodent not consequently uh... not coincidently though the least represented in many respects they they're the there at the one of the weakest political constituencies um... and that's that really is the challenges and ended because uh... wealthy woman can take it can take time off for work and take a day uh... may not be working can drive out-of-state can go uh... to the one uh... abortion clinic that made the in uh... in their state for hours away but uh... if you're poor you can't do it i mean i just saw some really uh... so shocking percentage of women of poor women um... end up getting abortions late because uh... of their reduced access in the cost uh... so that's really where this battle's going to be fought isn't right battle it now by it on the economic in inequalities if if you did with dates right i think we can say that the right it at the constitutional matter the right adult now whether or not this concordia you know overturns roe or states continue to regulate abortion the pendulum is moving in the direction and we know that abortion has existed in every step by a d at the beginning of time getting kicked in all countries where it is the legal abortion is jeff at universal it happened women control their fertility that fight now is over who get to have access to that right and how much that right is just a few with economic and and social stratification i think that put uh... progress than on how much better firmer ground because it can't next the abortion issue to all kind of other social inequality inequality around who can raise their kids with dignity who gets a good education for their children around who have access to college uh... andy when the abortion rights situated in a much larger set of requests from the progressive occurred to me and turn the progressive movement i think it's been a much farmer and stronger place socially the dr tracy weeks director of the dancing to standards in reproductive health at the big city center for reproductive rights at uh... u_c_ san francisco thanks so much for joining us track banquet